Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson An interesting aspect of the immigration debate is how forgiving many Americans can be toward illegal aliens, while never extending that same measure of grace to American citizens. One example can be found in the use of the term “false documents.” The discussion started with a Wall Street Journal editorial that expressed concern that the Department of Homeland Security policy might be “so sweeping that it could capture law-abiding immigrants whose only crime is using false documents to work.”…

Kerby Anderson The debate about the federal budget centers on whether the government is too big and too inefficient. Most Republicans argue that government is too big. Many Democrats ask, ‘Where is your evidence that government has grown too big? There are about the same number of federal employees today as in the past.’ George Will in a column writes about how “Big Government Sneakily Get Bigger.” He quotes from John Dilulio and his book and recent paper at the…

Kerby Anderson One of the many dividing lines between progressives and conservatives is their belief in the efficiency and effectiveness of government bureaucracies. Liberals may have some misgivings about how they are treated at the Department of Motor Vehicles or by the TSA at airports. Nevertheless, they tend to believe that government is the solution to most social and political problems. Conservatives are usually more skeptical about government and support the private sector over the public sector. But their reactions…

Kerby Anderson Ayaan Hirsi Ali begins her commentary with these words: “I was a Muslim refugee once. I know what it’s like.” She was en route to Canada to consummate a marriage arranged against her will by her father. At the Frankfurt Airport, she fled to the Netherlands. There she learned Dutch and received a master’s degree in political science before coming to America. She has worked as an interpreter for abused Muslim women and understands the Muslim refugee experience….

Penna Dexter There’s a welcome shift away from the social engineering in the military that drains readiness programs. The US Army released an official memo stating that “Transgender training is complete across the total Army.” For two years, the Army has been conducting mandatory transgender integration training at Army bases across the country. Two Obama-era directives necessitated this. One changed military policy as of July 1, 2016 so that an individual could no longer be discharged for being transgender. On…

Kerby Anderson Will robots destroy jobs and put all of us in the unemployment lines? Some futurists seem to be predicting this scenario. Jay Richards disagrees. He says it is an old argument that is new again. He is the author of the book, The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines. One report predicts that “The future of robots appears to be a dystopian march to rising inequality, falling wages, and higher unemployment.”…

Kerby Anderson We are all aware of how a conservative speaker is treated on a college campus. Now there is growing evidence that even moderate and slightly liberal speakers or professors will be treated poorly. A law professor from another university speaking at the City University of New York School of Law was shouted down for 10 minutes before he could continue his remarks. And the President of Duke University was shocked when students commandeered the stage, shouting demands and…

Kerby Anderson Today is the 4thof July, and I thought I would take a moment to talk about the origin of the ideas in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson said that many of the ideas in the Declaration came from John Locke. Jefferson also gave credit to the writer Algernon Sidney, who in turn cites most prominently Aristotle, Plato, Roman republican writers, and the Old Testament. Legal scholar Gary Amos argues that Locke’s Two Treatises on Government is simply Samuel…

Kerby Anderson The Starbucks CEO announced that he was going to close 150 stores. The argument given by the company was that these stores were hit with declining sales. While that may certainly be true, economists have noticed another reason why these stores may be closing. According to an article by Brandon Morse “The first stores on the chopping block are those located in cities where the ‘fight for 15’ crowd has had their victories.” If you are not familiar…

Kerby Anderson It is hard to imagine how a coffee house in Laurel, Maryland would be controversial. After all, the Ragamuffins Coffee House is known for not only serving coffee but also for serving up a special blend of community service and worship. Apparently, it is that last item that started all the controversy. The local church opened the doors to the coffee house and opened its arms to reach out to the homeless and needy families in the community….

Penna Dexter The Trump Administration has just made it easier for small businesses to offer health insurance to their employees. ObamaCare didn’t change the health insurance picture much for large companies. But it imposes rules and mandates on small businesses that have raised their costs and caused more and more of them to decide not to offer health insurance to employees at all. The Department of Labor has finalized a rule that will enable more employers to form Association Health…